2017 Winner – Andrew Young

This opening batsman with a flair for writing about the game, stood out amongst over sixty entries. The Arts degree student will receive $15,000 over three years to assist his studies.

Andrew is both a talented cricketer and writer. He is popular with readers of renowned sports opinion website, the Roar, where Young’s love of literature and cricket combine. His recent article A Cricket Tragics Guide to the Off-Season encapsulates the passion he has for the summertime game accompanied by the emptiness felt as winter approaches.

Young was an outstanding student and leader at Camberwell Boys’ Grammar School and exceptional cricketer with over four years representing Cricket Victoria at under-age State championships. An unabashed admirer of Ricky Ponting growing up, Young concedes cricket is his passion and in idle moments dreams of high honours, “I would love to progress as far as possible but I also understand other avenues will open up to me and there will be alternative ways of thinking.”

More than 100 police from across the Force will be sporting pink cricket caps at the Sydney Cricket Ground today (Saturday 6 January 2018).

Each of the rostered officers has given up their wages for the day, all of which will be donated toward the McGrath Foundation that raises money to assist thousands of people experiencing breast cancer.

The funds are used to place McGrath Breast Care Nurses in communities across Australia who provide physical, psychological, and emotional support from the point of diagnosis, and throughout their treatment journey – free of charge.

The Foundation is currently funding 119 breast care nurses in communities across Australia that have supported more than 60,000 families.

NSW Police Acting Commissioner David Hudson is proud of the officers for supporting the important work of the McGrath Foundation.

“Most of us have been affected by cancer in some way; whether it’s via a family member, friend or colleague, or those who are battling the disease themselves,” Acting Commissioner Hudson said.

“To show our support and help raise awareness and funds our officers are joining the bandwagon and wearing pink.

The Bradman Centre is looking for a person with strong organisational skills that is capable of juggling a number of tasks at any given time as the Event Manager. Reporting to the CEO, the Events Manager is responsible for effective and efficient management of all aspects of events, communications and marketing and for implementing and evaluating the membership program. The successful applicant will be proficient at communicating with the media and high-profile clientele.

The successful candidate will be flexible with hours of work during high trading periods and the cricketing season.

The Bradman Centre is looking for a dynamic Business Administration Manager responsible for the management and finances, staff and volunteers and events as well as general administration of the Centre.

The ideal candidate will have senior corporate administrative management experience in a small business, commercial setting or similar. Demonstrated understanding of business compliance, writing financial reports /budgets, experience in the development and management of staff and strong communication skills are essential elements of this role.

The successful candidate will be flexible with hours of work during high trading periods and the cricketing season. The position reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the Bradman Foundation.

]]>https://internationalcrickethall.com/employment-page/feed/0https://internationalcrickethall.com/employment-page/Just like the Don: Why Steve Smith’s batting method is masterfulhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/crickethalloffame/~3/Z6VcExYKf2g/
https://internationalcrickethall.com/just-like-the-don-why-steve-smiths-batting-method-is-masterful/#respondThu, 07 Dec 2017 23:01:44 +0000https://internationalcrickethall.com/?p=14584More »]]>Reproduced from an article in The Sydney Morning Herald by James Buckley

Steve Smith is the closest thing to Sir Donald Bradman we have ever seen.

Not only did the Australian captain’s 141 not out win the first Ashes Test at the Gabba, it firmed up expert opinions both at home and in England that the world’s best batsman’s unorthodox method was eerily similar to the greatest cricketer to have played the game.

Statistically the Don will always prevail – his Test batting average of 99.94 remains about 66 per cent better than anyone who went before him, or has come since.

But technically speaking, the prolific Smith is a throwback to Bradman’s unique method of drawing his bat towards gully, and rotating the willow in a semi-circle before addressing the ball.

Statistically the Don will always prevail – his Test batting average of 99.94 remains about 66 per cent better than anyone who went before him, or has come since.

But technically speaking, the prolific Smith is a throwback to Bradman’s unique method of drawing his bat towards gully, and rotating the willow in a semi-circle before addressing the ball.

Smith’s superb innings last week, which produced a 21st Test century and boosted his average to 61.23, prompted ex-first class cricketer-turned-journalist Simon Hughes to vocalise the comparison with Bradman on his podcast The Analyst.

“He’s almost a modern version of what Bradman was in many ways,” Hughes told Fairfax Media.

“I looked at his method and there is this thing called the rotation method, which he’s famous for – it gave him flow. By taking the bat out to third slip or gully and then bringing it round in a semi-circle, it gave the whole body a kind of rhythm that he then brought into the stroke.

“That kind of method wasn’t necessarily ideal for defence but for playing attacking shots it was ideal because it got your body going and got you momentum to hit the ball, particularly on the leg side.

“He managed to adapt his game so obviously he could hit it through the offside and Smith is the same. He has this semi-circular loop of his bat, which goes out to gully and then comes round in a semi-circle, it gives him that rhythm and flow that he needs to play shots.

“It’s uncanny the resemblance. Somebody wrote once that Smith’s bat flaps around like a palm tree in a gale and in the bat lift it does waft around a bit more than Bradman’s did, but when it comes down, it’s exactly the same.

“Of course, he’s also got that insatiability and that ability to just bat endlessly as well. Bradman famously said I don’t care about style, I just care about runs.”

The beauty of Smith’s batting is in its intrinsic and natural technique.

So many young batsmen are taught to take the bat back towards the wicketkeeper, keep the elbow high and then play through the line of the ball.

But Smith was never coached like that. He was always allowed to pursue his natural bat lift, and from there his game prospered.

And it’s getting better with age. On home soil over the past three years he boasts an astronomical batting average of 93.5.

“Steve always had it, it was always there and I reckon it’s become more obvious and more ingrained as his natural style because he scores runs,” Smith’s former batting coach Trent Woodhill said.

“He literally does not care how he looks, it’s all about the contest each ball and that’s what separates him from the others. Steven enjoys batting, each ball is a gift whereas for others, the result is a gift or the score is a gift.

“Everyone enjoys scoring a hundred or a fifty or playing a good shot, but the thing with Steve is every ball is just as important as the one before. So whether he’s on 199 or whether he’s on nought, he still gets the same amount of enjoyment and determination onto every ball he faces.

“Everyone’s waiting for Steven to have a down series and it may never happen because he’s so comfortable with that technique and he’s not comparing it to anybody else’s. Even the Bradman comparison, that wouldn’t change Steven’s thought pattern.
“He wouldn’t then look at Bradman and see what he can mirror with his technique, he’d look at Bradman and see what he can mirror with his performance, or once again his commitment to each ball.”

Often it’s the sportsmen who don’t mirror the traditional teachings who enjoy the most success.

Tennis superstar Roger Federer’s method is somewhat ungainly, but he enjoys a similar natural flow that allows him to play perfect shots.

Golfer Jim Furyk, who won the 2003 US Open, also belongs in the unorthodox category. He has a floating right elbow but compensates for that with superb control of his wrists.

Batting coach Neil D’Costa, who has worked with some of the sport’s finest players, has long admired Smith’s technique from afar.

“The other thing that Steven does that is very different, he’s got a monkey grip on the right hand, like when you grab a monkey bar,” D’Costa said.

“Those guys generally with a monkey grip can’t hit the ball through cover. So what Steve has great control of is his right elbow, he brings the right elbow in and then he releases the bat through cover.

“If you look at that cover drive he played to bring up a hundred, that looked like a cover drive that 500 other players have played.

“One thing we do know is the bat face open and looking at point is critical to being a good short ball player and a good player through the leg side.

“If the toe of your bat is going towards the wicketkeeper and at bail height, you’re going to have problems facing the full ball on your leg stump. The stuff that Steven does is literally exactly what we’re looking for in a high-performance player.

“Something he does that is odd is his idiosyncrasies, he fidgets then he bounces but at the critical moment he’s in exactly the same position as other guys. At ball release, freeze frame, he’s there.”

It’s important to note that Smith’s technique is not identical to Bradman’s.

The Bradman bat lift was far more compact. And there was far less fidgeting and bouncing around the crease between deliveries.
But both players possess the same rotary arc in their bat lift, which puts them in a similar position when the bowler releases the ball.
Long-retired cricketer Tony Shillinglaw has been researching Bradman’s game for 35 years. The 80-year-old’s dying wish is that the Bradman method is not lost to cricket forever, and in Smith there is now a prototype to potentially propagate the unusual but super successful technique.
Shillinglaw has never seen a batsman resemble Bradman so closely. South African Hashim Amla is the only other player he says who possessed key similarities, but he rotates from the wrists and arms, whereas Bradman and Smith rotate the entire body.
“The whole thing about Bradman is his bat starts rotating, and that makes his whole body move,” Shillinglaw said.

“He does it differently, but the principles are the same. In other words his body is completely free to react to the ball. He can score through 360 degrees where orthodox techniques don’t allow you to do that from the first place.

“Bradman’s bat never stopped once it started. Because Bradman was rotating, his head was still, his feet were still, but the bat was moving.

“When the ball came out, the bat just reacted to the ball. He did the same thing for every single ball – once the ball came out, the ball dictated what shot he played. Steve Smith is the same.

“Smith’s wrists with this rotation, they’re like a ball bearing, they can rotate and they can react to the ball in any shape or form. The wrists are completely free to do whatever the ball, he wants to do.

“In the dictionary if you look at technique it says it’s the mechanical part of an art. Smith and Bradman with the motion, it’s not technique, the mechanical part of an art, but it’s the motion et cetera, which becomes the art. And that’s the difference between an average of 50 and an average of 99.

There is yet another similarity between Bradman and Smith. Both were ridiculed in their younger years by the English, Bradman as an unorthodox stroke maker and Smith as a No.8 batsman in the side originally to bowl some leg spin.

Both proved the traditionalists wrong. Bradman’s average will never be bettered, but Smith is improving with age and can certainly close the gap throughout the rest of his Test career.

“We must not let Bradman’s method go,” Shillinglaw said.

“It’s been ignored by the whole of the coaching establishment throughout the world for 90 years now. Cricket should be able to take advantage of it as Bradman’s gift to the game of cricket.”

‘My brother and I were ‘doing’ spirit of cricket because of my father. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was where we always talked about cricket, he taught us how to behave whether we did well or badly, won or lost, if things were going well on the field or not and he instilled a love of the game in us.’ Richie Benaud Bradman Museum Interview 2009

The Benaud name is not only immediately associated with cricket but also high standards of character and is widely respected throughout Australia. Achievement at Test level, leadership through captaincy, cricket administration, journalism and broadcasting are synonymous with the name Benaud.

But where does such character come from? Is it spontaneous, random, serendipitous? This carefully crafted and private insight into the Benaud family confirms the opposite. Drawing on scrapbooks containing letters, match scorecards, and poems written and assembled by Richie and John’s father Lou, and complemented by many photos taken by their redoubtable mother Rene, we learn that while cricket was the dominant influence on the family, it was their reaction to it and the family culture which shaped their cricket and therefore their relationships, ethics and lives regardless if they were playing in Casino, Parramatta or Lord’s.

With a Foreword by Ian Chappell and an Afterword by Neil Marks the book is, in many ways, John and Richie Benaud’s, touching tribute to their father and mother. Detailed childhood recollections commence with the Benaud home at No. 5 Sutherland Rd North Parramatta, its modest but comfortable furnishings, the veranda where John played a form of cricket using ping pong balls and a stump souvenired by Richie from his first Test. Even the archaic laundry where his mother battled with hot and dangerous devices barely recalled today does not escape attention. Lou’s impact on the family is marked. He is recorded sweeping in after a day of school teaching followed by coaching the local school-boy team. Dinner time is ‘cricket central’ as he leads conversation discussing the game’s strategic nuances or potential deliveries available to the leg-spin bowler, urging his sons to outsmart the opposition using clandestine terms like the ‘pea and thimble’ field setting and mentoring them on how to always project absolute confidence on-field despite inevitable negative thoughts.

But this is much more than a family story, the book is important Australian social history. Lou’s recount details the Benauds generational association with North Coast River towns. We learn that Jean Benaud emigrated from France in 1837 to ply the NSW north coast as Captain in whimsically named steamers Pluto, Uncle Tom, Phoenix, Champion, Secret and William IV. Jean lived in Taree and Wingham and was well known along waterways with names like Richmond, Manning, Clarence and Hastings. These names abound in the text and it is perhaps not surprising that Jean’s descendants become fine rowers gaining local fame in that once popular past-time. The Benauds also establish themselves in diverse trades like watchmaking and, somewhat prophetically, the newspaper trade. They make an impact on their communities becoming established and essential businesses.

While Lou vividly describes community life in the river town his most enthusiastic writings revolve around cricket. We follow his sporting rise from birth-place Coraki, to his first job as a school teacher at Casino, a newly married husband struggling against heat and limited resources at Koorawatha (between Cowra and Young), school master and new father at Jugiong in South West New South Wales. Eventually the family settle in Western Sydney as his increasingly guileful leg-spin (he once dismisses a side twice by taking all 10 wickets in both innings) and assertive batting carry him into high levels of regional representative cricket. Matches and moments are sharply recalled, supported by insertions of the local paper’s reports and previously unpublished photos from the family album. As Lou’s own career wanes, he diligently records those of his sons. It’s all there, press cuttings, letters, photos, the Ashes and its many characters. Richie’s bowling is closely documented. Even detail on his chronically split index finger is escribed as it threatens to limit his career until a pharmacist in Timaru (NZ) comes to the rescue indirectly helping write cricket history. John’s achievements are also chronicled. Selection for the 1973 Australian tour of the West Indies, playing against The World XI and the controversial career interrupting cricket boots all make fascinating reading.

Primary sources anchor this book and give it a weighty authenticity. It is written against the backdrop of world events including the two wars and the Great Depression. This in combination with Lou’s observant and flowing text, piqued with cricketing wisdom, make for an entertaining and highly readable book for those who both love cricket or only have passing interest. A mandatory and equally relevant inclusion in any north coast regional library as well as those held by cricket enthusiasts everywhere, readers of The Kid From Coraki will learn much from it about 19th and 20th Century Australian history as well as the true spirit of cricket.

In addition to the Bradman Museum, The Kid From Coraki is available from The Cricket Publishing Company. Email: Cardwell@mcks.com.au

]]>https://internationalcrickethall.com/book-review-december-2017/feed/0https://internationalcrickethall.com/book-review-december-2017/Australia Day Rafflehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/crickethalloffame/~3/ltKFtaITYeU/
https://internationalcrickethall.com/australia-day-raffle/#respondWed, 06 Dec 2017 06:02:09 +0000https://internationalcrickethall.com/?p=14551More »]]>Funds raised from the Australia Day Raffle will help the Bradman Foundation run the Coverdrive program offering public school students with disabilities the opportunity to play a variety of sports at Bradman Oval.